Mayoral candidate Jim Brooks wants electric cars in council fleet and other top stories.

• Mayoral candidate Jim Brooks wants electric cars in council fleet

  The Connect Cairns team wants to see electric cars and buses become the norm in Cairns. PICTURE: JUSTIN BRIERTYELECTRIC  cars and buses would be zipping around Cairns streets under a plan to overhaul the city’s transport infrastructure.Mayoral candidate Jim Brooks unveiled Connect Cairns’ transport policy on Friday, which continued on his team’s plan to transition Cairns to a carbon neutral city.The policy was based on seven key points, including the radical plans for electric cars and buses.“Th..

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• House Rules faves build new dream

  

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• Regional lifestyle property markets rising

  

  Equity-rich Sydney and Melbourne homeowners may help boost Australia's coastal lifestyle markets. Iconic lifestyle markets such as the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Cairns have started to bounce back and record strong housing market conditions after ongoing weakness between 2008 and 2014, property analytics firm CoreLogic RP Data says. CoreLogic research analyst Cameron Kusher says some areas are starting to show growth although regional housing markets are a mixed bag. "Newcastle, Wollongong,..

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• Plans to demolish 'unsafe' fishing spot near Port Douglas sparks ...

  

  Lucas Creek casts from the Old Mowbray Bridge, south of Port Douglas, which is slated for demolition. PICTURE: MADISON WILLIAMSSUPPORT is growing for a new structure to replace a once popular Far North fishing spot deemed to be too unsafe by an engineer. Douglas Shire Council announced on Wednesday the Old Mowbray Bridge, about 7km south of Port Douglas, was in “significant disrepair” and would be immediately removed.It came after a report from an engineering consultant highlighted the wooden st..

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• FNQ health authorities given all clear in interim report into hospital ...

  An interim report has been released into the deaths of seven people at Herberton Hospital. PICTURE: BRIAN CASSEYFAR North health authorities have been found to have acted “promptly and appropriately” in response to a virus outbreak at Herberton Hospital.But the son of a man who was among seven people at the 38-bed palliative care unit to die during the outbreak said his questions over what happened were yet to be answered.The interim report released by Queensland Health on Friday found five of t..

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• Virtual College student virtually raises $250K worth of donations for ...

  

  By Sophia Rose Young HAYS, Kan. — Scrolling through her Facebook feed, Stacy Cairns-Abdein, a Virtual College student at Fort Hays State University earning her Master of Professional Studies in social entrepreneurship, saw an opportunity to help a friend who simply asked the virtual world if anyone knew of an organization in Alabama collecting donations for Syrian refugees. “No one did, so I decided that I would try to set up a small winter clothing drive,” said Cairns-Abdein. Cairns-Abdein did..

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• OPINION: Say thanks to an amazing team

  

  FOR my last column, I would like to pay tribute to the Daily Mercury team. Yesterday was my final day with the Merc, and can I say it has been a wild ride. I had already been working as a journalist for a number of years before joining the team here, but I was a magazine journalist based in Cairns. The Mercury helped build and shape my foundations as a hard news journalist and it was through this job I found my real passion as a reporter - court and crime. I am sad to be leaving, ..

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• PM has regenerated the team: Birmingham

  

  PM Malcolm Turnbull has shored up his cabinet ranks for election year, with a younger look.PM has regenerated the team: BirminghamPrime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has brought more women and younger talent into his ministerial team in an election year reshuffle forced by two retirements and three resignations, Liberal frontbencher Simon Birmingham says."He has seized the opportunity to regenerate the team, to lift the number of women in the team, to bring in some more very talented young people fr..

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Cairns to take in $20m for Chinese New Year .	Backpackers weigh in on lockout debate in Cairns .
Students return to class after bomb threats force evacuation of two ... .	It's no lion, Chinese New Year has come to Cairns .